Armstrong suit against the USADA thrown out

AFP, LOS ANGELES

A federal judge on Monday dismissed Lance Armstrong’s lawsuit against the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), opening the way for the agency’s drug case against the seven-time Tour de France winner to proceed.

US District Judge Sam Sparks noted “troubling aspects” of the USADA’s case against Armstrong and a “perplexing” battle between the USADA and the International Cycling Union (UCI) over jurisdiction in the case, but despite his criticism of those bodies he was firm in his view that the US courts were not the place to decide the issue.

Armstrong, who has vehemently denied doping during his cycling career, had argued that the USADA lacked jurisdiction to pursue a case against him and claimed the agency’s arbitration process violated his rights under the US constitution.

Sparks dismissed the lawsuit, filed in Armstrong’s hometown of Austin, Texas. Armstrong can appeal to a higher court, move on to arbitration with the USADA — and perhaps eventually to the Court of Arbitration for Sport — or accept sanctions from the agency, which has charged Armstrong with doping during the years he won the Tour de France from 1999 to 2005.

Penalties could include a lifetime ban from cycling and the loss of his Tour de France titles.

“We are pleased that the federal court ... has dismissed Lance Armstrong’s lawsuit and upheld the established rules which provide Congressionally-mandated due process for all athletes,” USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said in a statement. “The rules in place have protected the rights of athletes for over a decade in every case USADA has adjudicated and we look forward to a timely, public arbitration hearing in this case, should Mr Armstrong choose, where the evidence can be presented, witness testimony will be given under oath and subject to cross examination, and an independent panel of arbitrators will determine the outcome of the case.”

Armstrong has called the pursuit of the case a “vendetta” and his attorney Tim Herman welcomed Sparks’ comment that the motives were “mystifying.”

“[The] UCI has asserted that it has exclusive authority to decide whether charges should be brought in this case and has directed USADA not to proceed further,” Herman said in a statement. “We are reviewing the court’s lengthy opinion and considering Mr Armstrong’s options at this point.”

Sparks found Armstrong’s claim that the USADA’s procedures denied him his constitutional right to due process was “without merit.”

Otherwise, the judge said, the matter would be “best resolved through the well-established system of international arbitration, by those with expertise in the field, rather than by the unilateral edict of a single nation’s courts.”

Sparks did note “the deficiency” of the USADA’s charging document, but said the agency’s lawyers had informed the court that Armstrong would receive more detailed disclosures “at a time reasonably before arbitration.”

Sparks also noted “troubling aspects” of the case.

“Not least of which is USADA’s apparent single-minded determination to force Armstrong to arbitrate the charges against him, in direct conflict with UCI’s equally evident desire not to proceed against him. Unfortunately, the appearance of conflict on the part of both organizations creates doubt the charges against Armstrong would receive fair consideration in either forum,” Sparks said, but added that made it more important for the matter to be resolved by the parties involved — including the US cycling federation.